I will try to make this brief, as I am looking for some advice. My dh and I had filed a Chapter 7 in 2003 for reasons that really had nothing to do with bad financial decisions, rather just life. Well, afterwards we were very dumb and ran up a large amount of credit card debt along with our 2 vehicle payments.
In May 2009, we filed a 13 and have been making payments since then, mostly because we could not file another 7 until this year even though we were under the median and have no assets.
It has been difficult to make it with the payments our attorney was able to secure for us, and we are currently a partial month behind. I spoke to the attorney about needing to get a modification due to increased expenses and he said that it was too difficult and the Trustee would not likely grant it. He told me that if we had to skip a payment, it was fine and that the Trustee would take no action until we were 2 full months behind so I skipped 1/2 payment to have some dental work completed that was desperately needed. Last week, we received a motion to dismiss for not making timely payments. I immediately called our lawyer and he assured me that as long as we were caught up before the hearing which is in early May, that the court would drop the motion. You can understand why I am leery about trusting his advice at this point. We will be caught up before the hearing, but here is my question.
We will be eligible for a Chapter 7 in July, and with the exception of our vehicles which are included in the 13, everything else is unsecured. I am not sure if it is better to allow the case to dismiss and file a new Chapter 7 this summer or to continue making the payments and try a conversion. We are still under median.
I am also concerned about our vehicles and was wondering if anyone had experience with doing a conversion and asking to re-affirm the loans which the lenders may not be interested in doing due to the 13. We considered waiting another 6 months until they were paid in full, but then they would be considered assets and I am afraid the Chapter 7 trustee would make us give one of them up.
Thanks in advance for any advice you guys have, you all seem super knowledgeable. The other thing that is concerning me is that if we try to do a conversion, we would need to use our current attorney and we really have not been happy with him and don't feel that he did the best he could with our budget in the first place. For example, we claimed $1000.00 per month in food expenses for groceries and school lunches and he said that was unreasonable. We have 3 teenagers for goodness sake.
Just not sure whether it would be better to let it dismiss and file a new Chapter 7 in July or to try to convert. Any experience with that?
In May 2009, we filed a 13 and have been making payments since then, mostly because we could not file another 7 until this year even though we were under the median and have no assets.
It has been difficult to make it with the payments our attorney was able to secure for us, and we are currently a partial month behind. I spoke to the attorney about needing to get a modification due to increased expenses and he said that it was too difficult and the Trustee would not likely grant it. He told me that if we had to skip a payment, it was fine and that the Trustee would take no action until we were 2 full months behind so I skipped 1/2 payment to have some dental work completed that was desperately needed. Last week, we received a motion to dismiss for not making timely payments. I immediately called our lawyer and he assured me that as long as we were caught up before the hearing which is in early May, that the court would drop the motion. You can understand why I am leery about trusting his advice at this point. We will be caught up before the hearing, but here is my question.
We will be eligible for a Chapter 7 in July, and with the exception of our vehicles which are included in the 13, everything else is unsecured. I am not sure if it is better to allow the case to dismiss and file a new Chapter 7 this summer or to continue making the payments and try a conversion. We are still under median.
I am also concerned about our vehicles and was wondering if anyone had experience with doing a conversion and asking to re-affirm the loans which the lenders may not be interested in doing due to the 13. We considered waiting another 6 months until they were paid in full, but then they would be considered assets and I am afraid the Chapter 7 trustee would make us give one of them up.
Thanks in advance for any advice you guys have, you all seem super knowledgeable. The other thing that is concerning me is that if we try to do a conversion, we would need to use our current attorney and we really have not been happy with him and don't feel that he did the best he could with our budget in the first place. For example, we claimed $1000.00 per month in food expenses for groceries and school lunches and he said that was unreasonable. We have 3 teenagers for goodness sake.
Just not sure whether it would be better to let it dismiss and file a new Chapter 7 in July or to try to convert. Any experience with that?
It just takes making phone calls to figure out what is in your best interest
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